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India Says Chinese Anti Satellite Program A Global Threat
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by Staff Writers Bangalore (PTI) Apr 12, 2010 India has slammed China‘s anti-Satellite (ASAT) programme, terming it a threat to global space assets. In 2007, Beijing successfully tested an anti-satellite (ASAT) vehicle, destroying an inactive weather satellite.
By spacedaily.com
India, China set up hotline to ease border dispute
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Only months after reported border incursions sparked anger across the Himalayas, India and China sought to strengthen diplomatic ties during cordial four-day talks in Beijing which ended Thursday.
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China, India agree to set up hot line for leaders
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China and India have agreed to set up a hot line linking their top leaders. The agreement setting up the hot line was signed Wednesday. Visiting Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi did not comment on the hot… China – India – Yang Jiechi – Asia – Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China
By sfgate.com
Hawaii man’s China military secrets trial to begin from china-defense-mashup.com
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April.06 (China Military News cited from AP and written by AUDREY McAVOY) — Jury selection in the trial of a former B-2 stealth bomber engineer from Maui who is accused of selling military secrets to China is scheduled to begin in federal court Tuesday, with opening statements expected on Wednesday.
Noshir Gowadia has pleaded not guilty to 21 counts, including conspiracy, violating the arms export control act and money laundering. The indictment accuses Gowadia of helping China design a cruise missile with stealth capabilities.
The trial comes some 4 1/2 years after Gowadia’s arrest and more than three years after his trial was originally scheduled to be held. The 66-year-old Haiku resident has been in federal detention since his October 2005 arrest because a judge ruled he was a flight risk.
PLA Air Force’ presently active H-6 bomber, developed in 1960s
The trial is expected to last at least two months. Ashton Gowadia said his father is looking forward to defending himself.
“Dad is very confident that he will be found 100 percent innocent of any crimes,” the younger Gowadia said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Larry M. Wortzel, commissioner of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said the trial will be closely watched by the intelligence community, the FBI, and military because it’s one of a series of major cases involving Chinese spying on the U.S.
Prosecutors allege Gowadia helped design an exhaust nozzle for China that gives off less heat, making it difficult for infrared detectors to find the missile. They say Gowadia pocketed $110,000 over two years for his exhaust nozzle design.
The indictment alleges he made six trips to China from 2003 to 2005, conspiring to conceal some of his visits by getting border agents to leave immigration stamps off his passport.
He’s also accused of attempting to sell classified stealth technology to the Swiss government and to businesses in Israel and Germany.
Gowadia moved to the U.S. from India in the 1960s for postgraduate work. In 1968 he joined defense contractor Northrop Corp., now Northrop Grumman Corp., where he designed elements of the B-2.
He became a U.S. citizen in the 1970s and retired from Northrop in 1986, two years before the B-2 made its public debut.
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Canadian researchers uncover China-based online spy network
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An elaborate China-based online spying network has leveraged popular Web services such as Twitter, Google Groups and Yahoo! Mail to steal India’s military secrets, Canadian researchers said Tuesday.
By news.yahoo.com
US military warns of increasingly active cyberthreat from China from china-defense-mashup.com
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Mar.29 (China Military News cited from computerworld.com and written by Patrick Thibodeau) — On the same day that Google Inc. and the GoDaddy Group Inc. complained about China to a congressional committee, U.S. Navy Admiral Robert Willard appeared before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee with an even stronger warning about cyber-threats posed by China.
Willard’s comments about China received little press attention but were stronger than anything said by either company.
“U.S. military and government networks and computer systems continue to be the target of intrusions that appear to have originated from within the PRC (People’s Republic of China),” said Willard.
He said that most of the intrusions are focused on acquiring data “but the skills being demonstrated would also apply to network attacks.”
Willard testified on the military’s operations in its Pacific command, which he said “faces increasingly active and sophisticated threats to our information and computer infrastructure.”
“These threats challenge our ability to operate freely in the cyber commons, which in turn challenges our ability to conduct operations during peacetime and in times of crisis,” Willard said in prepared remarks (PDF document). He said the military was responding in near real-time to threats.
It’s not just the military saying that the cyber-threats coming from China are on the rise. Appearing before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Thursday, Christine Jones, an executive vice president and general counsel at domain registration giant GoDaddy, said that “in the first three months of this year, we have repelled dozens of extremely serious DDoS attacks that appear to have originated in China.”
Although GoDaddy and Google cited China as a source of cyber-attacks, they didn’t blame the government. But these firms are taking action to limit their dealings with China because of other government policies concerning privacy and censorship.
But will the experiences of GoDaddy, Google and for that matter, the U.S. military, prompt other companies to act similarly and take steps to limit their business in China?
Robert Vambery, a professor of international business at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business in New York, said this kind of behavior has been going on for a while and it’s naive not to expect it. While he sees the possibility of action by Google and other firms having some short- to intermediate-term impacts on other businesses in their dealings with China, they won’t be major, he said.
“Unless there is some serious military encounter between China and the United States, then this is not likely to change significantly in the near future,” Vambery said.
University of Notre Dame professor John D’Arcy, who conducts research on information security and computer ethics, says Google decisions puts a little pressure on China, and said if U.S. firms feel any pause at all in dealing with that country, it is because more and more cyber attacks are being linked back to China.
“Companies would be a little bit suspicious because in general the Chinese government has not done anything to curb this activity,” he said.
But China’s importance to U.S. firms is huge, and Dell Inc. is only the most recent company to illustrate why.
There was a brief eye-opening moment this week when it appeared as if the Google’s exodus from China was about to escalate in a big way.
India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, was reported to have said in speech that Dell was planning to shift some production out of China because it wanted safer environment. CEO Michael Dell had recently met with Singh.
The statement came from account distributed by the India Press Information Bureau, according to various press reports. But David Frink, a Dell spokesman said in an interview, that was a “misinterpretation of his remarks.”
Dell has 5,000 employees in China and two manufacturing facilities. In a statement released by Dell, the company said in that in its meeting with Singh, they discussed “ways of building India’s hardware manufacturing eco-system.”
In this context, Mr. Dell said that the company spends about $25 billion annually on sourcing components from its suppliers in China. With the right kind of progress, Mr. Dell said that he believes India also has an “opportunity to become a hardware manufacturing hub, generating employment and adding to that country’s impressive growth.”
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Pakistan tests firing C-802 cruise missile on a target ship from chinesemil.blogspot.com
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Pakistan Navy test fires missiles in Arabian Sea manoeuvres
In this handout picture released by the Pakistan Navy, a target ship is hit by a missile during a naval firepower test conducted by the Pakistan Navy in the north Arabian Sea on Friday.
Islamabad: The Pakistan Navy on Friday fired a variety of missiles and torpedoes from warships, submarines and aircraft in an intensive firepower drill in the north Arabian Sea. It said the exercise was a message to “nefarious” forces, an apparent reference to India.
“While [giving a reassurance about the] Pakistan Navy’s commitment to defending the motherland, this strike capability would also send a message of deterrence to anyone harbouring nefarious designs against Pakistan,” a Navy statement said after the manoeuvres.
The manoeuvres were aimed at assessing the lethality, precision and efficacy of weapon systems, the statement said.
Newly-inducted weapons systems, including anti-surface missiles on Chinese-made F-22 P frigates and air-to-surface missiles of the P3C maritime surveillance aircraft were among those tested.
An important feature of the drill was the firing of subsurface-to-surface missiles by Agosta 90B submarines.
“The target set was successfully engaged,” the statement said.
Naval Chief Admiral Noman Bashir, who witnessed the event, expressed satisfaction at the operational readiness of the Pakistan Navy fleet, and commended officers and men for their commitment and professionalism.
Area cleared
The weapon firing zone, spread over hundreds of miles, was cleared of all merchant ships and fishing craft during a special operation to ensure the safe conduct of the drill. The missiles fired included the French-acquired SM 39 surface-to-surface missiles, and the AM 39 air launched version of the same missile.
The naval exercise comes after Pakistan reportedly recently acquired 120 Chinese C802 long-range anti-ship cruise missiles to counter the Indian Navy’s BrahMos missiles. — PTI
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/13/stories/2010031356422600.htm
By polaris
China, ROK vow to further military ties from china-defense-mashup.com
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Mar.24 (China Military News cited from xinhuanet) — Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie met here Wednesday with Yu Woo-ik, the new ambassador of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to China.
Liang said China-ROK relations have developed rapidly since they forged diplomatic ties in 1992, and hailed the two countries’ steady development in bilateral military ties.
Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie(R,front)meets with Yu Woo-ik(L,front),the new ambassador of the Republic of Korea(ROK)to China,in Beijing,capital of China,March 24,2010.
“China is willing to work with the ROK to lift the state-to-state and military ties to a new high,” Liang said.
Facts had proven that a healthy and stable relationship between the two countries and militaries was of great significance to their common development and the regional peace and stability, Liang said.
Liang also briefed Yu on China’s stance on the Taiwan issue.
Yu, once a senior political advisor to ROK president Lee Myung-bak, said he was ready to make his due efforts to push forward the ROK-China relations.
Upon his arrival at the ROK embassy in Beijing last December, Yu delivered a speech on bilateral relations, in which he called on the two countries to lay a firm foundation for the future of bilateral ties.
After Yu assumed office in China, he had met several Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
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India’s Stalled Arms Buying Leaves Its Army Outgunned by China (Bloomberg)
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March 12 (Bloomberg) — India, which has tripled its defense spending in a race against China’s military buildup, is having trouble converting the funding into weapons and equipment its military says are urgently needed.
By us.rd.yahoo.com
Why Is China Slowing its Military Spending? from china-defense-mashup.com
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Mar.11 (China Military News cited from Time.com and written by Austin Ramzy) — For the past two decades, China’s rapid economic growth has been twinned with an even more rapid increase in military spending. While GDP has expanded by an annual average of 9.6% over the past 10 years, the reported budget for the People’s Liberation Army has grown by an average of 16%. So it was an unexpected surprise when Li Zhaoxing, a former foreign minister who is now spokesman for the National People’s Congress, announced on March 4 that China’s defense budget would increase by 7.5% for 2010, just over half of last year’s 14.9% rise.
The slowdown was partly attributed the difficult economic climate. While China was able to grow at 8.7% last year, that healthy rate came at the expense of $586 billion in stimulus spending. Last week Premier Wen Jiabao said that government spending would grow more slowly this year as Beijing seeks to control inflation while maintaining stable growth.
Amid those economic demands, another double-digit increase in military spending might be seen as excessive. But perhaps the most compelling reason for the slowdown in spending is that Chinese officials have become more cautious of the way the development of the People’s Liberation Army is perceived abroad. Last year China marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic with an Oct. 1 military parade in front of Tiananmen Square. While generally a cause for celebration in China, the parade of soldiers, tanks and missile carriers was seen as intimidating by many foreign observers.
Chinese military analysts have explained the rapid spending increase as normal for a large nation climbing out of decades of poverty. “Although China now has a growing military demand, it has always upheld the principle of peaceful development. The double-digit increases in the past should be interpreted as compensational growth,” says Zhao Zongjiu, deputy secretary-in-general at Shanghai Institute for International Strategic Studies, a government-backed think tank. “I predict that, given the current policy environment, the growth rate of military expenses will remain roughly on the same level as China’s GDP growth in the next few years.”
China’s 2010 military budget, which is awaiting legislative approval, will be $78 billion. That would make it second only to the United States, which for 2010 has a total budget of $663.8 billion. U.S. spending is equivalent to 4.7% of the nation’s GDP, while China’s defense outlay equals about 1.5% of its estimated 2010 GDP.
But military observers have long cautioned that China’s official defense budget figures shouldn’t be taken at face value, and that actual spending could be two or three times higher than what is reported. China is engaged in a significant number of expensive military equipment development programs, including likely efforts to develop its first aircraft carrier. Those all make it difficult to curtail spending, says Andrei Chang, Hong Kong-based editor-in-chief of Kanwa Defense Review Monthly. “There are very ambitious military plans for the Chinese,” he says. “This is the reason it’s impossible to have an increase of 7.5%.”
Improving ties with Taiwan have also lessened some of the military tension along China’s periphery. Beijing considers the self-ruled island a breakaway province that should ultimately be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. A more China-friendly leadership in Taipei has helped eased some of the fear of armed conflict. But the region still has the potential to be a flash point. Taiwan says China has some 1,500 missiles stationed along the Taiwan Strait. And a decision by U.S. President Obama in January to approve the sale of more than $6 billion in military equipment to Taiwan has angered the Chinese government, which has postponed some military exchanges with the U.S. in protest.
Chang also notes that China is just two years away from an expected reconfiguration of its leadership. President Hu Jintao is expected to step down, and will want to secure high positions for his political allies. Drastically curtailing defense spending could alienate the military, whose support he needs to ensure top spots for his proteges. “The new round of political power struggle is continuing,” Chang says. “You have to give souvenirs to the armed forces.”
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China circled by chain of US anti-missile systems from china-defense-mashup.com
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Feb.21 (China Military News cited from Chinadaily and written by Qin Jize and Li Xiaokun) — washington appears determined to surround China with US-built anti-missile systems, military scholars have observed.
According to US-based Defense News, Taiwan became the fifth global buyer of the Patriot missile defense system last year following Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Germany.
Quite a few military experts have noted that Washington’s latest proposed weapon deal with Taiwan is the key part of a US strategic encirclement of China in the East Asian region, and that the missiles could soon have a footprint that extends from Japan to the Republic of Korea and Taiwan.
Air force colonel Dai Xu, a renowned military strategist, wrote in an article released this month that “China is in a crescent-shaped ring of encirclement. The ring begins in Japan, stretches through nations in the South China Sea to India, and ends in Afghanistan. Washington’s deployment of anti-missile systems around China’s periphery forms a crescent-shaped encirclement”.
Ni Lexiong, an expert on military affairs with the Shanghai Institute of Political Science and Law, told the Guanghzou Daily yesterday, “The US anti-missile system in China’s neighborhood is a replica of its strategy in Eastern Europe against Russia. The Obama administration began to plan for such a system around China after its project in Eastern Europe got suspended”.
Tang Xiaosong, director of the Center of International Security and Strategy Studies with Guangdong University of Foreign Studies noted that the ring encircling China can also be expanded at any time in other directions. He said that Washington is hoping to sell India and other Southeast Asian countries the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 missile defense system.
Analysts say that China is closely monitoring US-India missile defense cooperation since any integration of India into the US global missile defense system, would profoundly affect China’s security.
However, according to former Chinese Ambassador to India Pei Yuanying, India is unlikely to be part of any such US scheme against China.
“New Delhi needs to develop relations with the US, but it wants to be an independent international power on the international arena,” he said.
Pei said it was necessary to take multiple aspects of China-US relations into consideration. “The US has followed the policy of engagement plus containment with China for a long time and that overall policy will not change during Obama’s term,” he said.
Defense News quoted John Holly, Lockheed’s vice president of Missile Defense Systems as saying the outlook for the missile defense market remains sound.
Pointing to missile programs in Pyongyang, Teheran, Moscow and Beijing, Holly said “the world is not a very safe world and it is incumbent upon us in the industry to provide (the Pentagon) with the best capabilities.”
Beijing has frequently criticized US missile-defense development and has been making efforts to restrict missile defenses through the United Nations forums.
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told a UN disarmament conference in August in Geneva that “countries should neither seek for absolute strategic predominance nor develop missile-defense systems that undermine global strategic stability.”
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Beijing deploys more armed police power in Xinjiang from china-defense-mashup.com
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Feb.10 (China Military Power Reporting by Johnathan Weng) — February 8, 2010, the Xinjiang Armed Police Corps’ Sixth detachment was set up in a grand conference, the Xinjiang Armed Police Corps to further expand the scale.
Chinese Armed Police Force deputy chief of staff Pan Changjie, vice chairman of the Xinjiang autonomous region Jappa Abibulla inaugurated the foundation meeting of the sixth detachment.
At the meeting, Pan Changjie hopes the sixth armed police detachment to become the fist to maintain stability in Xinjiang. In the formation of 6th Detachment, levels of officers are from other Xinjiang armed force units and its cadremen are transferred from across the country of elite anti-terror forces.
The positioning of the sixth detachment based in Urumqi protection and this unit is a brigade-level force to carry anti-terror mission around the Xinjiang.
Vice Chairman Jappa Abibulla fully affirmed the significance of the 6th armed police detachment, while he said the local government would continue to carry out its mandate to support the armed police force to help solve their problems.
Xinjiang Armed Police Corps totally has 14 armed police detachments and one armed police mobile division. Northern Xinjiang region has five armed police detachment and an armed police motorized divisions, and there are nine detachments in southern Xinjiang. In Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Chinese government has placed the largest armed police power, whose strength could reach 30,000.
Some related information:
Northern Xinjiang region:
1st Detachment
Location: Urumqi
Purpose: Mobile Anti-terror operation
2nd Detachment
Location: Urumqi
Purpose: Mobile Anti-terror operation
6th Detachment
Location: Urumqi
Purpose: Mobile Anti-terror operation
4th Detachment
Location: Kashi
5th Detachment
Location: Ili
7th People’s Armed Police Tactical Division
Location: Ili
Southern Xinjiang region:
3rd Detachment
Location: Aksu
Bayingolin Detachment
Location: Bayingolin
8th Detachment
Location: Hotan
Other detachments in southern Xinjiang region are unclear.
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Sino-Russian first joint patrol conducted along boundary river from china-defense-mashup.com
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Feb.02 (China Military News cited from PLAdaily and written by Guo Jianyue and Gao Pengfei) — The Chinese and Russian frontier defense troops accomplished the first joint patrol along the Argun River, an iced Sino-Russian boundary river in the east of Inner Mongolia of People’s Republic of China (PRC), between January 25 and 26.
According to the commander of the Hulun Buir Military Sub-Command of the Inner Mongolia Military Command, the Sino-Russian joint patrol this time not only enhanced mutual trust and understanding between the Chinese and Russian border representative organs, but also laid a more solid foundation for the Chinese and Russian frontier defense troops to construct a peaceful and stable frontier environment through concerted efforts.
Offciers of Chinese and Russian boundary defense troops
In spite of that the temperature in the Greater Khingan Mountains in the east of Inner Mongolia was as low as 30 degrees Centigrade below zero at 8:30 a.m. on January 25, the Sino-Russian frontier defense troops carried out their joint-patrol along the iced border river as planned.
The patrol personnel entered the iced boundary Argun River from the Chinese territory and then headed northward following the No. 111 border marker before finally arriving at the No. 124 border marker on the afternoon of January 26, covering a distance of 200 km in total.
The personnel participating in the joint patrol had determined on carrying out such tasks as jointly inspecting the order of the covered border section, checking the border markers and greeting the officers and men performing duty at the sentry posts.
Some officers and men from each of the Sino-Russian frontier sentries along the border river were also dispatched to join in the joint patrol in such forms as taking a vehicle and riding a motorcycle or a sled.
It is learned that in the coming summer the Sino-Russian joint patrol by boat will be staged along the boundary Argun River and a Sino-Russian joint military exercise will be carried out to crack down on the cross-border smuggling and sorts of other illegal activities in the Sino-Russian border area so as to guarantee the stability and prosperity in that area.
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Preparing and Training for the Full Spectrum of Military Challenges from rand.com
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The U.S. military training system is the envy of many countries around the world, but the militaries of China, France, the UK, India, and Israel can help the U.S. identify different approaches to readiness, adaptability, and operational issues.
By rand.org
India-Pakistan: China Takes Sides from chinesemil.blogspot.com
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Pakistani officials continue to press the U.S. for missile armed UAVs, so Pakistan can go after targets it selects, and ease the American UAVs out of Pakistan. The U.S. doesn’t trust the Pakistanis, who can be bribed, and often have divided (pro-Taliban) loyalties. Pakistani politicians don’t care, or at least have learned to live with these two problems, and want control of UAVs so they won’t continue getting criticized for allowing American UAVs to deal with hunting down and killing terrorist leaders. This is considered humiliating by many, if not most, Pakistanis. But if the Pakistani government were in charge, the bad guys could bribe, or intimidate officials, to get off the target list. You can’t do that with the Americans. What the Taliban can do is try and find who is supplying the location information of targets. The Americans actually use a wide array of sources, but the only ones the Taliban can get at are suspected spies. More are killed each month, and most are apparently innocent. This sort of thing angers a lot of people, as do a lot of Taliban policies. So the Taliban are taking note of growing public anger against them, and have, for example, allowed music to be sold again. For the last year, the Taliban had waged open, or guerilla, war against merchants who sold music CDs. The Taliban increasingly must use force to control populations, and this eventually backfires because most of the population is armed. If enough angry tribesmen get together, the Taliban are driven out of another town or valley. This has been happening a lot in the last year.
In Quetta, the largest city in Pakistani Baluchistan, two policemen were wounded when they questioned a suicide bomber equipped with a defective bomb. The bomber was wounded and captured. Baluchistan has its own tribal uprising, which has little to do with the Taliban (although the Baluch tribes allow the Taliban to hide out in Baluchistan).
China and Pakistan are becoming closer allies, and this worries India. For example, China is increasingly taking Pakistan’s side in the Kashmir dispute. While Pakistan and India occupy most of Kashmir, China also grabbed 22 percent of Kashmir, and wants a settlement that will confirm their ownership. But India disputes the Chinese claim, and many other such claims along its 4,000 kilometers border with China.
India continues to mass police and troops for a major campaign against Maoist rebels. In the last year, Maoist violence have been responsible for over a thousand deaths (most of them civilians). The Maoists are a combination of political rebels and bandits. Their activities are as often just criminal (stealing and extortion) as political (trying to influence elections or intimidate politicians.) The Maoists have been at it for two decades, and have worn out the support they long had with leftist political parties. The Maoists want a communist dictatorship, with Maoists in charge, and their former leftist allies are not keen on this.
February 3, 2010: In northwest Pakistan, a suicide car bomber rammed the specific vehicle in a convoy of five, that contained three U.S. Army Special Forces troops, killing the Americans. For years, there have been about a hundred of these American troops in Pakistan, used to train NCOs of the Frontier Corps, who then improve the training of these paramilitary troops, recruited from the tribes, who are the primary security force along the border. The accuracy of this attack (the killers knew where the Special Forces troops were headed and which car in a convoy) indicates corruption in the Pakistani security or intelligence forces. The corruption has always been there, and it would have cost a lot of cash to buy this kind of information. It may indicate the Taliban are desperate to strike back at any cost. The three dead Americans are the first to die in Pakistan in a decade of operating there. The three were travelling to a girls school that had recently been rebuilt (after having been damaged by the Taliban) with American aid.
February 2, 2010: In Pakistan (North Waziristan) American USVs fired over a dozen missiles at four villages, killing about 17 suspected Taliban and al Qaeda members.
February 1, 2010: In the Bajaur area of the Pakistani tribal territories, about 4,000 people fled their homes as troops sought, and attacked, nearby bunkers and other hiding places used by the Taliban. At least 22 of the Islamic terrorists were killed. This operation is one of several in which the army is chasing down groups of Taliban who were part of larger forces that were defeated when the army broke Taliban control in the tribal territories.
January 31, 2010: The U.S. announced that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, was dead, having died of wounds received in an American UAV missile attack two weeks ago. This conclusion is based on reports coming out of the tribal territories of Hakimullah Mehsud’s burial, after two weeks of futile attempts to tend his wounds. Hakimullah Mehsud, replaced, after some internal fighting, the Pakistani Taliban leader who was killed by a missile strike last Summer.
January 30, 2010: In the Pakistani tribal territories, a Taliban suicide bomber killed 17 people and wounded nearly 50. The Taliban have also used several roadside bombs recently, attacking civilians in most cases. In response, the military has increased its air strikes and ground operations against the scattered Taliban groups still operating in the tribal territories.
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/india/articles/20100205.aspx
By polaris
China, India boost defence as crisis takes toll on West from china-defense-mashup.com
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Feb.03 (China Military News cited from Reuters and written by Adrian Croft) – China and India sharply raised defence spending in 2009 despite the economic crisis but most European NATO members face a squeeze on defence budgets as they rein in gaping deficits, a report said on Wednesday.
The impact of the global financial crisis on defence and security spending varied across regions and countries, the International Institute for Strategic Studies thinktank said in its annual report “The Military Balance”.
PLA Navy Warwhip’s Main Gun and HHQ-9 air Defense Missile
U.S. defence spending almost doubled under former President George W. Bush but President Barack Obama had signalled that the need to tackle a big budget deficit would require “a dramatic reprioritisation within defence spending”, it said.
Obama asked Congress this week to approve a record $708 billion in defense spending for fiscal 2011 — including a 3.4 percent increase in the Pentagon’s base budget — but said he would continue his drive to eliminate wasteful programmes.
A sharp recession had led the Russian government effectively to abandon a comprehensive military re-equipment plan due to run from 2007-15 and to replace it with a new 10-year plan starting in 2011, the report said.
“In contrast to developments in advanced economies, both India and China have maintained their recent trend of double-digit increases in defence spending,” it said.
PLA Army Type 59 Main Battle Tank
India boosted defence spending by 21 percent in 2009 after the 2008 Mumbai attacks killed 166 people, it said.
China’s official 2009 budget included a 15 percent rise in defence spending to 480 billion yuan, equal to $70.3 billion at market exchange rates, the report said.
However, it said the official Chinese defence budget did not reflect the true level of resources devoted to the People’s Liberation Army. It was widely believed that the official budget took no account of weapons bought overseas or research and development funding, it said.
EUROPEAN DEFENCE LIKELY TO SUFFER
Other Asian countries, such as Australia, Indonesia and Singapore, had also posted increases in defence spending, it said.
PLA Air Force J-11B Fighter
In Europe, though, many countries had seen their budget deficits rise sharply as they pumped money into the economy to try to end the recession.
“When the time comes to redress these fiscal imbalances, discretionary spending will come under considerable pressure and defence is likely to suffer, particularly in those countries facing a looming demographic shift requiring greater expenditure on pensions and healthcare,” the editor of the Military Balance, James Hackett, wrote in the report.
Britain faced a challenge in reconciling its budget deficit with its large and growing future equipment plan, it said.
Among European members of NATO, only Norway and Denmark were likely to increase their defence budgets in 2010, and over the medium term most other countries would do well to increase defence spending in line with inflation or match existing budget levels, it said.
This would lead to pressure to step up pooling and multinational management of defence assets, to countries specialising in niche capabilities and to the collective procurement of critical defence equipment, it said.
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The recent row over China/US relations from china-pla.blogspot.com
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As George Bush once said, the relationship between US and China is complicated. In many ways, I think China is one of the few policy areas that Bush got almost everything right. He started presidency with much anti-China rhetoric, but left the office as one of the most pro-China president in US history. It is my personal view that having a positive, engaging and pragmatic relationship with China is the most beneficial path that any US administration can take. Some people in the China-blue group (like Bill Gertz, John Bolton and Donald Rumsfeld) favoured antagonizing China through more support with Taiwan, labeling China as a threat/competitor and creating an encirclement of China through alliance with Australia, Japan and India. Bush started off in that corner, but he slowly moved to great engagement with China while maintaining strong relationships with regional allies like Australia and Japan. I think he basically did a really good of adapting to the rise of China, the increased role of China as America’s creditor and the interconnected economic relationship between the two countries. He started started the strategic dialog with China, which I think really helped the bilateral relationship. I think he was absolutely right in going to the Beijing Olympics when the pressure was on him not to. By the end of his presidency, he had built a really good working relationship with China and a good understanding of the country. He was able to work with China on critical political and economical issues, even though the two sides had vastly different views. I think China really appreciated that.
The Obama administration was definitely very China friendly in the first year. A major reason is America’s need for China to continue to buy US treasury bond in the midst of the economic meltdown in America. A lot of people got nervous or angry by the fact that Obama/Hilary put human rights on the back burners, but I think that is overplayed. I always think that it’s far more effective to encourage China and explain the importance of human rights privately rather than embarrassing the Politburo in public. I do think that Obama gave in too much to China in some of the early negotiations like his visit to China, because it emboldened China to ask for more and give in less to US in future negotiations. In many ways, this is the expected path. Washington insiders cannot expect America to negotiate from a position of absolute strength like during Clinton years, because China is just so much stronger now economically and politically. I don’t really want to put military in there, because China’s recent success comes from its status as the world’s leading creditor nation. As history as shown, power flows to where money is and that is playing out again in China today. Now that Washington has elevated China to be the other super power of the world in the past world, it would be hard to push back Chinese ambitions. We have a problem now where the Chinese leadership also has to satisfy and listen to the growing middle class that is more nationalistic and confident than ever. So, as Washington is pressing Obama to get more out of China, the Chinese population is also pressuring the Politburo to not give up any of its new found power. With this kind of power struggle between the two countries, it’s not surprising that we have run into the current row.
Now, to turn on our attention to the point of contentions of the recent weeks: Taiwan, Tibet, Google and Iran. If we start with Iran, we all know what the issue is here. China has a lot of money invested in the country and relies on Iran for future energy supply. You know we can say a lot about the type of regime in the country, but US is also dealing with a lot of unsavory characters in the Middle East. The question is whether or not it makes sense for China to support tougher sanctions in Iran. I actually think it does, but there is obviously a limit that China can go without risking all of its major contracts in Iran. The reason to support tougher sanctions on Iran are many. Even though Iran may not be as actively developing nuclear weapon or as further along in its development as the Israelis think, it does openly taunt the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The danger to China is that more countries will seek for nuclear weapon and countries like Japan and South Korea will also develop it. I don’t think China is willing to accept that kind of strategical change. The more immediate threat comes from Israel. Now, the Israeli gov’t seemed to have given the Obama administration a deadline in harsh sanctions against Iran before it launches strikes against Iran’s nuclear targets. If that happens, Iran could cause all sort of problems in the Middle East if it manages to carry out its threat of shutting down oil/gas supplies in that region. Surging energy prices and instability in Middle Easts are definitely things that China would be afraid of. I’m really not sure how this will turn out. I can see that Israel will continue to ask for more from US and US will continue to ask for more support from China/Russia. At the end, I really don’t think US will get what it wants from China.
As for Google, I think this is more about China’s general cyber espionage effort against US governments and corporations rather than just Google. Let’s face it, these “attacks” against Google were attempts to get emails of human right activists rather than bringing down Google’s servers. It is not like we don’t know that China’s human rights record is rather poor. Rather than complaining to the Chinese gov’t and the media, the US government should run a similar cyber effort against China. And I think they are doing that, because China also claims to face a lot of cyber attacks. So in the end, I really don’t have a lot of sympathies for the US government or Google. Google is making a lot of noises about leaving China, but it is still operating in China with the self imposed censor turned on (despite its public claims otherwise). Like all other big corporations, it’s number 1 goal is to make more money. If it thinks that the cost of business outweighs the benefits, then it will leave the country. Clearly, the other 30 target firms are not going anywhere. The US government is in a position to fight fire with fire. If US wants to remain the IT leader of the world, then it should be able to create security and infiltrate other networks better than any other countries in the world. I think this issue will die down as soon as Google finds a solution with the Chinese gov’t. I really don’t think it will leave the country, because it does not want to totally abandon the search engine and especially the cell phone market for the future.
As a result of not receiving Chinese support on some issues, I think the recent moves are calculated actions by the Obama administration saying that we are not going to play “nice guy” with you anymore. Taiwan and Tibet are certainly the two things that agitate China more than anything else. To much of the Western world, Taiwan is just an Asian nation with a democratic gov’t threatened by China and Tibet is a land occupied by the brutal repression of China. Of course, the sympathetic image of Tibet is played up by the non-threatening zen-like image of Dalai Lama. The image of Dalai Lama as this international loved religious leader has basically elevated Tibet freedom ahead of many other larger and more repressed groups. One would really have to study Chinese history to see why the Chinese gov’t and its people have such a dislike to Taiwan Independence and Dalai Lama.
To the Chinese people, the 100 years from 1840 to 1949 was its century of humiliation where it had to give up part of its sovereignty and surrender its land to foreigners. It is important to take back all that it was forced to give up during that period. When China was negotiating with UK for the return of Hong Kong, Deng Xiaoping actually told Margaret Thatcher that “China is not Argentina” and that China would take Hong Kong back by force if necessary. So to Chinese people, Taiwan is a reminder that China was forced to give up land to foreign occupiers during that century. To Chinese people, Tibet was a backward, feudal region that was briefly taken away early this century and was liberated of those oppressive Lamas and foreigners in 1950s. Of course, there are strategic element to it. The navy does not think that it can truly operate beyond the first chain until the hostile ROCN is no longer at its door step. The army believes that it needs Tibet as a buffer zone and natural barrier that protects the nation from the Indians. There are obviously more to it. Most Chinese people believe that Han people everywhere are really Chinese and should rejoin China. They find the Dalai Lama request for true autonomy (This Forbes Article contains the key facts) to be more appalling for the following reasons:
- The land requested by Dalai Lama is not just the current Tibet autonomous region, but also includes large parts of surrounding provinces.
- These lands are requested despite the fact that Han population have long been the majority in some of those areas.
- The so called autonomy actually sounds more like sovereignty, because Chinese troops is no longer allowed on the land. There is no way that PLA can accept this due to the strategic implications against India.
- Dalai Lama requested China to stop transferring Han population to Tibet, but that has never actually happened. How can the 3 million Tibetans remain in majority if PRC actually tried to relocate Han people there?
- Dalai Lama, the former feudal ruler of Tibet with many slaves, is insincere when it comes to democracy for Tibetans.
Therefore, the divergence of opinion on the military sale to Taiwan stems from how the West and China sees Taiwan. Most Westerners believe that Taiwan is a separate sovereign entity that should only rejoin China if it wishes to do so. Therefore, Americans see these military sales as fulfilling the Taiwan Relation Act by providing Taiwan with additional defensive deterrent. The weapons themselves are very advanced, but they are defensive in nature and are not going to change the military balance across the straits. The best hope for Taiwan is still to make peace with China and maintaining strong relationship with America. So, what is the problem? Well, most Chinese people believe that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China that no other country should interfere with. Therefore, any sales to Taiwan is looked as containing Chinese power, violating its sovereignty and interfering with its internal affairs. While this might have been acceptable in the past, the increasingly confident Chinese public are no longer willing to keep quiet to such snobs. The meeting with Dalai Lama stokes anger in China for similar reasons. The Politburo has to make a lot of noise and take what appears to be strong actions to satisfy the public. In the past, we have often heard cases where the government publicly criticizes another head of state meeting Dalai Lama, but then telling them privately that things will be business as usual. I tend to think that will happen again here. They will make a lot of noise and suspend military contacts, but those things will be re-established sometimes next year. I don’t think the Obama administration needs to meet Dalai Lama again or sell weapons to Taiwan again for a few years, so things should smooth out by later this year. At the end of the day, it is in China’s interest to have strong working relationship and military exchanges with America. The PRC leadership is too pragmatic to let this drag on. On the other hand, I think the sanctions against US companies could happen. Since US has been sanctioning Chinese companies for years for doing business with Iran, I think punishing American companies for helping Taiwan is pretty logical. They really don’t do much business with Lockheed and Raytheon, so any kind of sanctions against them would be quite symbolic. They do a lot of business with Boeing, but Boeing is selling very minimal to Taiwan. The trickiest case here is Sikorsky and its parent company UTC. They do a ton of business with UTC. In fact, PLA even operates some blackhawk helicopters, some unmanned version of S-300C and PWC engines on some helicopters/air planes. Can they really sanction a company that they sort of depends on for some secondary defense project? Especially now that Eurocopter announced recently that they are also selling to Taiwan. Can China sanction Eurocopter when it is partners with Eurocopter on so many projects? We will see. I tend to think that any sanctions against US/EU companies over weapons sale to Taiwan at the moment would not be more symbolic than anything else. Maybe they will warn these companies that any future sales would be met with harsher sanctions.
In general, I think we have entered a phase where the Politburo has to be more vocal against US government and companies for support toward Taiwan and Tibet, because the public and the military demand it. Politburo can no longer accept explanations like “the previous administration did it” or “these weapons are only defensive” or “we have to do it for political reasons” and remain quiet, because it has to satisfy the local population and the military too. At the moment, the retaliatory actions will remain mostly air like in previous occasions, but they will be a lot stronger in the future if US decides to sell an offensive platform like F-16 to Taiwan. Basically, the balance of power between the two nations is shifting and the Chinese responses against perceived US snubs are only going to get stronger.
By Feng
China mulls military bases in Pakistan from chinesemil.blogspot.com
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China has signaled to set up foreign military bases including one in Pakistan, a Chinese government website said.
“Setting up overseas military bases is not an idea we have to shun; on the contrary, it is our right…it is baseless to say that we will not set up any military bases in future because we have never sent troops abroad,” said the report.
The report also said, “As for the military aspect, we should be able to conduct the retaliatory attack within the country or at the neighbouring area of our potential enemies. We should also be able to put pressure on the potential enemies’ overseas interests. With further development, China will be in great demand of the military protection”.
It is clearly aimed at piling up pressure on India and to counter US influence in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“As for the military aspect, we should be able to conduct the retaliatory attack within the country or at the neighboring area of our potential enemies. We should also be able to put pressure on the potential enemies’ overseas interests. With further development, China will be in great demand of the military protection,” said the report.
A military base in Pakistan will help China keep a check on Uighurs who are fighting for an independent nation in Xinjiang, which borders the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/China-mulls-military-bases-in-Pakistan/H1-Article1-502952.aspx
By polaris
Chinese Army medical team leaves for quake-hit Haiti from china-defense-mashup.com
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BEIJING, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) — A 40-member Chinese medical care and epidemic prevention team left here for Haiti on Sunday afternoon on a chartered flight, which also carried 20 tonnes of medical supplies, said the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).
The MOC said earlier in the day that China had decided to provide medical supplies worth 18 million yuan (2.64 million U.S. dollars) in additional aid to quake-ravaged Haiti.
Members of Chinese medical care and epidemic prevention team wave before they board a plane to Haiti, in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 24, 2010. A 40-member Chinese medical care and epidemic prevention team left here for Haiti on Sunday afternoon on a chartered flight, which also carried 20 tonnes of medical supplies.
The 20-tonne medical supplies included medicines, hygiene equipment, medical devices and camping equipment, said the ministry in a statement.
Also onboard the plane would be four Chinese peace-keeping police officers, replacing the four who were killed in the earthquake. China maintains a 125-member peacekeeping force in Haiti.
The chartered flight was expected to arrive at Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince at 3 p.m. Monday local time.
The MOC statement also said the 40 medical personnel came from China’s military medical system and 70 percent of them had participated in previous UN peacekeeping missions.
Many of them had been involved in the massive rescue mission after the deadly 8.0-magnitude Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, 2008, which left about 87,000 people dead or missing, it said.
At the departure ceremony, Qian Lihua, director of the Ministry of Defense’s foreign affairs office, said China was carrying out its responsibility as a UN Security Council member to help the Haitian people with concrete actions.
Qian said he expected the Chinese medical team to accomplish the mission in a professional manner by helping the Haitian people ward off threat of post-quake epidemic and reconstruct their homeland.
According to the MOC, with the 18 million yuan of additional aid, China has so far provided humanitarian aid worth 48 million yuan in materials and other supplies to Haiti, in addition to 3.6 million U.S. dollars in cash to the Caribbean country.
Apart from Sunday’s delivery of medical aid, China had already provided several other major aids to Haiti, which was hit by a 7.3-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12 local time.
On Jan. 13, the Red Cross Society of China announced 1 million U.S. dollars in emergency aid to Haiti.
On Jan. 15, the Chinese government announced its decision to provide 30 million yuan worth of humanitarian emergency supplies to Haiti.
On Jan. 21, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN Liu Zhenmin said China would contribute additional 2.6 million U.S. dollars in cash to Haiti.
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US to hold arms reductions talks with China, Gates says from china-defense-mashup.com
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Jan.21 (China Military News cited from telegraph.co.uk and written by Dean Nelson) — The US wants to open Cold War-style arms reduction talks with China to prevent future military confrontations, Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
His comments appeared to confirm Washington’s acceptance of China as a military superpower amid growing regional concerns over its build-up in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
China is currently undergoing a major overhaul of its armed forces. Beijing’s increasing number of nuclear submarine deployments have caused alarm in India, which regards China as its main regional rival.
China has further antagonised India by increasing military co-operation with India’s rival Pakistan, which is developing a new deep sea port at Gwadar, and neighbouring Burma.
India’s relations with China have deteriorated following a series of incursions along its disputed Himalayan border and a cyber attack last month on computers used by its top intelligence officials.
Mr Gates said he had discussed cyber security and China’s military build-up with the Indian prime minister and voiced America’s hopes to deepen understanding between Washington and Beijing on the issue.
He had been involved in the United States’ Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, which he believed had played an important role in avoiding armed conflict between the two countries. He said the same approach could help relations with China today.
“There was discussion about China’s military modernisation programme, what it meant, what the intentions of that military build-up and the desire on our part to engage China in a more routine and in depth dialogue about our strategic intentions and plans to avoid any miscalculations or misunderstandings down the road.
“I was involved in the strategic arms talks (with the USSR). I’m not sure they reduced any arms but the dialogue and candour about nuclear capabilities, how each side looked at nuclear weapons, played a significant role in preventing miscalculations and mistakes during the Cold War. That kind of dialogue with China would be most productive and in the interest of global security,” he said.
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